Netflix Serious Men Review: Nawazuddin Siddiqui in the lead role
Netflix Serious Men Review: Netflix released “Serious Men“ on October 2 starring Nawazuddin Siddiqui in the lead role. Directed by Sudhir Mishra and produced by Bombay Fables and Cineraas Entertainment, the film is based on the book of the same name by Manu Joseph.
Netflix Serious Men Review
It is essentially a story about ambitious Ayyan Mani, a middle aged PA of a veteran astronomer at the National Institute of theory and research, Mumbai and his son . He is a tamil immigrant who has seen India’s caste based oppression. Wanting his son to rise above the “filthy gutter”, he maliciously lays down a plan wherein he potrays his son Adi, played by Aakshath Das, as a child prodigy. But the deeper he goes into the plan, he gets on the verge of an expose that could seriously cause trouble to him, his family and an influential political party.
The film focuses on many aspects, it assimilates the effects or the offshoots of India’s caste based hierarchy , Reervation Vs Merit debate, Caste based vote bank politics, internal struggles in scientific research and a common man’s dream to rise above the strata of “middle class”. But beneath all these issues, the factor that is being overlooked at is how the growing expectations of parents can destroy their kids’ childhood. In the quest of pressuring children into completing the dreams that the parents could not, is in a way snatching their childhood from them and making them act like grown ups, like “Serious men”.
The film starts with Ayyan facing ignorance at the hands of his senior, which makes him wonder that he is but invisible to those who are more learned. He realizes the value of education and decides to make his son well educated, he believes that people who speak confusing things are much more respected because common people cannot fathom the meaning of their words. He strives on this principle and makes sure that his son speaks and talks in a way that he is considered a prodigy.
The child’s talents attract a political party who make him the face of their party . Ayyan pursues the people of the slum to give up their homes for a redevelopment project at the behest of the same party. The movie has many such moments that hint subtly at how a person with command over words and good knowledge can easily manipulate people.
But as the movie proceeds, Ayyan and Adi find themselves in a position of being exposed. Ayyan tries his best to avoid the invetiable by pulling strings and secrets. A striking scene is when Adi claims that he knows nothing and it’s all his father’s doing, but the public appreciates him for his humbleness despite of being a genius, thereby confirming Ayyan’s principles.
The movie is full of drama and comedy with Nawaz perfectly holding the reigns, yet it finishes off leaving us hanging somewhere in between and questioning.
Apart from Nawaz, the film features the young and confident Aakshath Das, Nassar, Shweta Basu, Indira and Sanjay Narvekarwho have all played their parts exceptionally well.
The film is availble on the online streaming platform Netflix.
